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...And Little E Makes 3

The two seventh birthdays of Little E

An Ewok in a party hatLittle E turned 7 on the 19th – wow! Despite numerous suggestions that he was going to get a baby brother for his birthday, I wanted him to have one last big birthday bash all to himself. And so did he – after attending two birthday parties in the same weekend, two weeks prior to his birthday, he suddenly announced that he wanted to have a birthday party too, one that all his friends could attend. Maybe at the park. Maybe the park with the ducks. Which, with two weeks to go, is quite the bold declaration. Attempts to look into reserving the park with the ducks yielded little information, and in any case the forecast for his birthday was looking like an outdoor party might be a bust. I started looking around for possible venues, but it was too close to the actual date; a second birthday party would have to be held a week after the 19th. … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Television & Movies

Everybody’s geekin’ for the weekend, part three: Space (the final frontier)

An enterprising visitHaving gone to Arkadia Retrocade on Friday night in Fayetteville, followed by a Saturday morning visit to the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma, we headed homeward, but with one more stop planned in Oklahoma City itself (40 minutes east of Weatherford) before returning to Fort Smith.

The second leg of the central Oklahoma space pilgrimage took us to Oklahoma City proper, in a part of town that we might not have visited otherwise but for the presence of a starship. In a rented space next to a roofing repair company in Oklahoma City is one of the only two 360-degree classic Star Trek bridge sets in the United States, replicating – if not improving on – the Enterprise set from the original ’60s series.

Starbase Studios was holding one of its rare open house events. They’re rare because the bridge is a working film set, and exposing it to the public puts it at increased risk of suffering accidental damage. Keeping the entire set fully lit (rather than the usual practice of only lighting those sections needed for a particular spot), and running fans to make the already-warm studio space tolerable for visitors, runs up a considerable electric bill, even for a single day.

We joked en route that the directions to the nondescript studio building sounded like a ransom note – in between lines of the directions I had printed out from the studio’s web site, I was riffing helpful additions like “place the money in an unmarked paper sack inside the newspaper vending machine on the corner; do not look around you, you are being watched.

The verdict? Totally. worth. it. … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 And Beyond The Infinite Gadgetology

Everybody’s geekin’ for the weekend, part two: Space (race)

Gemini and ApolloWith everyone in agreement that the two space-related destinations in central Oklahoma were worth going to, we set out from Fort Smith in the Martins’ vehicle to strike out westward. The kids were surprisingly well behaved for the whole trip; it occasionally got a bit noisy, but since the back set was filled with boys, that’s hardly a surprise.

Our first Saturday destination: the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma! And then to the stars. Warning: there are over 50 photos after the jump.Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Home Base

A nice warm day

You have no idea how much a nice warm day – and by “warm” I mean “65 degrees with a pretty good wind so we’re probably talking about 62 tops” – is welcome after several weeks of near-constant snow and ice. Since the beginning of the year one could be excused for thinking we’ve gone through more icing than a cake shop. Anyway, the cumulative effect of a relatively nice warm day was… happy faces.

Nice dayRead more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Gaming

Have fun storming the arcade!

It’s almost Christmas, the boy is on break, I’m mentally fried from this new job that I have, and mom is in a mood to blow things up. To help keep mom within the confines of the law, and to assist her in the blowing up of things, we all piled into the vehiclemobile and set out to conquer a place we haven’t visited in far too long – Arkadia Retrocade!

Arkadia RetrocadeRead more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters

Happy rescue day, Obi Cat!

Seven years ago, this klutzy kitten wandered into the yard, and to the amazement of all involved, Xena didn’t chase him away.

Obi

Later that day, completely unrelated to the arrival of the cat, terrible things happened. We had a vacancy. Obi braved the skeptical black cat and stepped into the breach. … Read more